לזכות ידידי אהובי ר' הערש יונתן בן ר' מרדכי אפרים וכל בני ביתו לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיהם
The gemara [Avoda Zara 3a] says that at the end of days, the goyim will be sitting in their succos on succos. Hashem will make it really hot and the goyim will kick their succos and leave. In contrast, the Jews will also leave their succos [they are not obligated because they are מצטערים] but they will not kick at the succah. That is the בירור - the clarification, that will take place at the end of days.
This is a huuuuge lesson for us and not just a futuristic vision.
Sometimes we are not obligated to fulfill a certain mitzva. Let us say - we are patur from learning because we have to help with the children or go to work. How do we feel? Are we happy? Ahhhhh, we are off the hook! No need to learn. Or do we feel that we would ideally love to learn but now the ratzon of Hashem is that we should do something else?!
Or let us say that we don't say tachnun on a certain day for whatever reason. What is our feeling? Is it "GREAT! Tachnun is such a pain. DAY OFF!:-)" Or do we say - it would have been a pleasure to fall on our faces before Hashem and to ask for mercy but today there is a chosson in shul or it is chodesh nissan and now it is the will of Hashem that we skip tachnun, so we will happily follow His present will.
I think that if we check ourselves carefully we will notice that we often are very happy when we don't have to fulfill halachic obligations. However, that is the בירור that defines the level of our devotion to Hashem and His mitzvos. Our joy has to be that we are fulfilling the will of Hashem and not that our lives are easier and more convenient.
[See Sod Yesharim Hoshana Rabba P. 22]
